New Details Revealed about FINDING DORY Setting; Movie Is Mostly Set at One Location

Now a recent interview with Pixar President Jim Morris has provided new details regarding one of the film’s major settings and how it affects the plot. Hit the jump for more. Finding Dory opens June 17, 2016.

Speaking to our partner site, Omelete, Morris said the sequel takes place six months after the first movie, and Dory, now living in the same reef as the clown fishes, living a normal and quiet life, dealing with her forgetfulness. One day she goes with Nemo on a class trip to see manta rays migrate back home, which makes her feel home sick since she doesn’t know where she came from.

Morris added that “the movie will be mostly set at the California Marine Biology Institute, a huge complex of sea life rehabilitation and aquarium, where Dory was born and raised. We will get to meet new characters, like an octopus, sea lions, a beluga whale, among others.”

It’s interesting that the movie is mostly set at one location, so even though Dory is trying to find her parents, this doesn’t seem to be the same quest-narrative of the first film.

The Pixar creative team is often asked the question: “Will we ever do a sequel to Finding Nemo?” And there’s one person in particular who keeps doing the asking, according to Disney chief creative office John Lasseter: Ellen DeGeneres, the voice of Dory, who’s long complained about the lack of a sequel on her talk show.

Well, here it comes, and DeGeneres herself was on hand at Disney’s D23 Expo Friday to celebrate. Andrew Stanton, director of the original film, said he honestly thought the story was a “closed circuit,” but then he started wondering about that daffy little fish with the short-term memory problems. “I wanted to know that if this charming forgetful fish ever got lost again, that she would be okay, that she would find her way home,” he said. “And at the end of Finding Nemo, I wasn’t confident about that. So that’s when I knew I had another story.”

That story involves an ocean sanctuary facility where wounded animals are treated and re-released into the wild. DeGeneres was joined on stage by two stars of Modern Family who are voicing sea creatures in Finding Dory: Ed O’Neill, who plays Hank the Octopus (who is actually a septapus because he’s missing a leg) and Ty Burrell, who plays a white beluga whale who thinks he has a head injury (even though every member of his species has that huge lump on their heads). Kaitlin Olson, of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, plays a whale shark named Destiny–whose frightened fellow fish won’t let her forget the “shark” part.

The filmmakers presented a new clip from the upcoming film featuring Dory being resuscitated after what appears to be a fainting spell. She is troubled, remembering something—but what? Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) tells her, “Why don’t we sleep on it? We’ll talk about it in the morning.” Then we see her tucked away under some coral at night, murmuring in her sleep: “Don’t cry, Mommy, don’t cry. Oh no…” Nemo wakes and finds Dory sleep-swimming, stuck against another stem of coral, muttering about, “The jewel of Monterey, California.” Nemo and his father nudge her back to her resting spot, but Dory is still vexed in the morning. “I don’t remember what I remembered, but I remembered that I remembered something,” Dory says.

“Dory’s instincts are telling her to go home,” Nemo tells his father. As she stares into the blue void of the ocean, it hits Dory: “My Mom, my Dad. I have a family. They don’t know where I am!” She knows she needs to get to Monterey, but California’s all the way across the ocean. Marlin is obstinate, even though he previously went on a death-defying quest. “The only way to travel in the first place is so you don’t have to travel ever again,” Marlin says. “All I know is that I miss them. I really, really miss them,” Dory says. “Do you know what that feels like?” Marlin looks at Nemo. He sighs. He knows. “Dad, you can get us all the way across the ocean, right?” Nemo asks. Marlin sighs again. “No,” he says. “But I know a guy.”